Detachable and reattachable portal pages

ABSTRACT

A portal environment may include at least one detachable and reattachable portal page. The detachable and reattachable portal page may include a detach feature to detach the portal page from the portal environment. A reattach feature may be provided to reattach a detached portal page to the portal environment. In another embodiment, a method to detach and reattach at least one portal page may include detaching a selected portal page in response to activating a detach feature. The method may also include reattaching the detached portal page in response to activating a reattach feature. The selected, detached portal page may be transferred to a window in response to activating the detach feature. Tunneling communication may be provided between the detached portal page and the portal environment.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Cross-References

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/710,943, filed Aug. 13, 2004, the contents ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference. Further, this application isrelated to co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/708,971, filed Apr.5, 2004, entitled “Portal Including Detachable and ReattachablePortlets,” which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference andis assigned to the same assignee as this application.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

The present invention relates to portal pages and web portals foraccessing multiple portal pages and more particularly to detachable andreattachable portal pages.

A portal is a point of access to data and applications that provides aunified and personalized view of information and resources. Typically, aportal is implemented as one or more portal pages on a website. Portalpages can integrate many elements, such as live data feeds, staticinformation, multimedia presentations and similar content. Currently,within a portal environment, the purpose of a portal page in to organizeand contain a given set of portlets. Portlets are reusable componentsthat may provide access to applications, web-based content, and otherresources, such as the live data feeds, static information andmultimedia presentations, as mentioned above. Because of the integratednature of portal pages, a user does not have the ability to view andinteract with multiple pages at the same time. FIG. 1 is an example of aportal environment 100 in which a portal page 102 identified by a tab104 labeled “My Finances” is currently being displayed or presented to auser. Other portal pages that may be accessed or activated through theportal environment 100 are identified by their corresponding tabs, suchas “Documents” tab 106, “Welcome” tab 108, “My Work” tab 110, “MyNewsroom” tab 112 and “My Star Trek” tab 114. The portal pages cantypically only be switched from one another via the use of theintegrated tabs 104-114 that may be located at the top of eachcorresponding portal page 100, such as that illustrated in FIG. 1. Onlyone portal page may be viewed on a user's desktop or active at any giventime.

Additionally, other problems may occur as a result of the tight couplingof portal pages within a portal environment. One problem is that usersdo not have the ability to refresh multiple pages because only one pagecan be viewed or active at any given time. Another problem is related todynamic updates for a portal page. Updates, such as alerts or the like,cannot be surfaced or brought to a user's attention because only oneportal page may be viewed or active on a user's desktop at any givenmoment. Further, portlets on separate portal pages cannot communicatewith one another.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a portalenvironment may include at least one detachable portal page. The portalenvironment may also include a detach feature or element associated withthe at least one detachable portal page.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a methodto detach and reattach at least one portal page associated with a portalenvironment may include detaching a selected portal page in response toactivating a detach feature or element. The method may also includereattaching the detached portal page in response to activating areattach feature or element.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a methodto detach and reattach at least one portal page associated with a portalenvironment may include detaching a selected portal page in response toactivating a detach feature or element. The method may also includetransferring the selected, detached portal page to a separate window orpage in response to detaching the selected portal page.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a methodto form a portal environment may include providing at least one portalpages with a detach feature. The method may also include providingcommunication between the portal environment and the at least one portalpage in response to the at least one portal page being detached.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a systemto detach and reattach a portal page to a portal environment may includea portal server. The system may also include at least one portal pageaccessible via the portal server. The at least one portal page mayinclude a detach feature to detach the at least one portal page from anassociated portal environment.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, acomputer-readable medium have computer-executable instruction forperforming a method that may include detaching a selected portal pagefrom a portal environment in response to activation of a detach feature.The method may also include reattaching the detached portal page inresponse to activation of a reattach feature.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an example a portal environment including tabs for access tocorresponding portal pages.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary method to form a portalenvironment and to detach at least one portal page associated with theportal environment in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary method to reattach a portal pageassociated with a portal environment in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary method to form a portal page andto detach at least one portlet associated with the portal page inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 5A, 5B, 5C and 5D (collectively FIG. 5) illustrate an example ofportlets forming at least one portal page which forms a portalenvironment and illustrate an example of sequentially detaching andreattaching a portal page to an associated portal environment anddetaching and reattaching a portlet to an associated portal page inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an example of a system to present a portal environment to auser and to provide the ability for the user to detach and reattachselected portal pages to an associated portal environment and to detachand reattach selected portlets to an associated portal page inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description of preferred embodiments refers tothe accompanying drawings, which illustrate specific embodiments of theinvention. Other embodiments having different structures and operationsdo not depart from the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary method 200 to form a portalenvironment or collection of portal pages and to detach at least oneportal page associated with the portal environment in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In block 202, one or more portalpages may be formed including a detach feature or element. The portalpages may be formed, written or created using a web-based programminglanguage, such as Java™, hypertext markup language (HTML) or the like.The detach feature may include an icon or other graphical symbolrepresentative of a feature or function to pop-out, undock or detach anassociated portal page from a portal environment or web page in whichthe portal page may be accessed and presented. Detaching or undockingone or more portal pages from the portal environment permits the user toview and interact with multiple portal pages simultaneously or tointeract with portlets contained on different portal pages at the sametime. Portal pages may be active and communicate with the portalenvironment or website and interact with other portal pages whendetached or undocked. Additionally, portlets on separate portal pagesmay interact with one another even though one or more of the portalpages may be detached or undocked.

As discussed in more detail below, the portal page when detached,undocked or popped-out may be represented in the portal environment orwebsite by a placeholder, a re-attach icon or symbol within the portalenvironment or website. The contents of the detached or undocked portalpage are replaced by the placeholder or re-attach icon. The placeholderor re-attach icon may be much smaller than the detached portal page totake less space in the portal environment or website to unclutter thewebsite and make it easier to navigate on a user's desktop. Whendetached and replaced by the placeholders, multiple portal pages may beactive and viewed via their corresponding placeholders on a user'sdesktop at any given time. Because multiple portal pages can be activeand displayed via their respective placeholders simultaneously, usershave an ability to refresh the portal pages and dynamically update theportal pages. The placeholder or re-attach icon may also serve thepurpose to control re-attaching or re-docking a detached portal page asdiscussed in more detail herein with reference to FIG. 3.

In block 204, a portal environment may be formed incorporating one ormore portal pages that may each include a detach feature or element. Theportal environment may also include other portal pages that do not havethe detach feature. Referring also to FIG. 5A, FIG. 5A illustrates anexample of a portal environment 500 including a plurality of portalpages, such as portal page A 502 and portal page B 504. Each portal page502 and 504 may include a plurality of portlets. For example, portalpage A 502 may include portlet A 506 and portlet B 508. Portal page B504 may include portlet C 510 and portlet D 512. Each portal page 502and 504 may include a detach function 514 or element. Additionally, asdiscussed in more detail with respect to FIG. 4 and FIGS. 5B and 5C,each portlet 506-512 may also include a detach or undock feature 516 orelement.

In block 206 (FIG. 2), the detach feature, icon or symbol of a portalpage (element 514 in FIGS. 5A-5D) may be activated by a user clicking onthe icon or symbol using a computer mouse or other pointing device. Inblock 208, an independently managed window or page may be formed inresponse to the detach feature or icon 514 being activated. Formingindependently managed windows or pages is known by those skilled in theart. An independently managed window may be formed or created for eachdetached portal page. In block 210, the detached portal page may betransferred to the independently managed window or page. In block 212, aplaceholder or reattach icon may be formed in the portal environment torepresent and hold the place for the detached portal page. Theplaceholder or reattach icon may be substantially smaller than theoriginal portal page because of less content to occupy much less spaceor real estate in the portal environment. Replacing the detached portalpage with a smaller placeholder also unclutters the portal environmentand permits more than one portal page to be presented to a user or in auser's desktop at the same time. The portal pages and portlets containedwithin each of the portal pages may also communicate and interact withone another. The user may also interface and interact with the portalpages and portlets at the same time. The placeholder or reattach iconmay also include a reattach feature or element that may be operated oractivated by a user to reattach or transfer the contents of the portalpage back into the portal environment or website. The reattach featureor element may include an icon or symbol representative of the functionof transferring the contents of the portal page back into the portalenvironment. Thus, the contents of the popped-out or detached portalpage may be replaced with a placeholder including a reattach function oricon within the portal environment.

In block 214, a communication tunnel or tunneling communication may beestablished or formed between the portal environment or placeholder andthe detached portal page. Accordingly, communication with the detachedportal page through the portal environment may continue. This permits auser to interact with the detached portal pages and portlets containedtherein and permits the detached portal pages and portlets to interactwith one another.

Referring also to FIG. 5C, FIG. 5C illustrates portal page A 502 beingdetached or popped-out of the portal environment 500. Portal page A 502and its contents may be transferred to an independently managed windowor page 518 or the like and a placeholder 520 may replace portal page A502 in the portal environment 500. The placeholder 520 may include areattach feature or icon 522. The detached portal page A 502 in thewindow 518 may also include a reattach element, feature or icon 524.Tunneling communication 526 may be created or established between thedetached portal page A 502 and the placeholder 520 or portal environment500 for communication between the detached portal page A 502 and otherportal pages that may be either detached or otherwise. The tunnelingcommunication 526 also permits communication between portlets containedin the detached portal page 502 and portlets in other portal pages thatmay be detached or still contained within the portal environment 500.

Referring back to FIG. 2, in block 216, a determination may be made if adetach feature or icon has been activated on any other portal pages. Ifso, the method 200 may return to block 208 and the method 200 maycontinue as previously described with respect to blocks 208-216. If thedetach feature, element or icon has not been activated for any otherselected portal page, the method 200 may end at termination 218.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of an exemplary method 300 to reattach a portalpage associated with a portal environment in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. In block 302, a reattach feature orelement may be activated by clicking on a reattach icon or symbol on theplaceholder or on the detached portal page in the independently managedpage. Referring also to FIG. 5D, FIG. 5D illustrates an example ofactivating the reattach feature or element by clicking on a reattachicon or symbol 522 associated with the placeholder 520 or by clicking ona reattach icon or symbol 524 associated with the detached portal page A502.

In block 304, the detached portal page may be transferred from theindependently managed window 518 or page back to the portal environment500 in response to activating or clicking on either the reattach icon522 associated with the placeholder 520 or the reattach icon 524 orfeature associated with the detached portal page A 502. In block 306, adetermination may be made if a reattach feature or icon has beenactivated on another selected, detached portal page or associatedplaceholder. If a reattach feature has been activated on anotherdetached portal page or associated placeholder, the method 300 mayreturn to block 302 and the method 300 may proceed as previouslydescribed with respect to blocks 302-306. If a reattach feature has notbeen activated on any other detached portal page or placeholder, themethod 300 may end at termination 308 until a reattach feature isactivated.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of an exemplary method 400 to form a portal pageand to detach at least one portlet associated with the portal page inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. The method 400may be similar to that described in co-pending patent application Ser.No. 10/708,971, filed Apr. 5, 2004, entitled “Portal IncludingDetachable and Reattachable Portlets,” which is incorporated herein inits entirety by reference as discussed above. In block 402, one or moreportlets may be formed including a detach feature or element. Theportlets may be formed, written or created using a web-based programminglanguage, such as Java™, hypertext markup language (HTML) or the like.The detach feature may include an icon or other graphical symbolrepresentative of a feature or function to pop-out, undock or detach anassociated portlet from a portal page in which the portlet may beaccessed or presented. Detaching a portlet may effectively remove theportlet from the portal page. As discussed in more detail below, theportlet when detached or popped-out may be represented in the portalpage by a small placeholder or symbol representative of the portlet.Detaching one or more portlets makes the portal less crowded orcluttered and provides more space in the portal page for other portletsthat may be more useful to a particular user. Detaching one or moreportlets may also make the portal page easier to navigate.

In block 404, a portal page may be formed incorporating one or moreportlets that include a detach feature or element. The portal page mayalso include other portlets that do not have the detach feature.Referring also to FIG. 5A, FIG. 5A illustrates an example of a portalpage 502 including a plurality of portlets, portlet A 506 and portlet B508. Each portlet 506 and 508 may include a detach function 516 orelement. In block 406 (FIG. 4), the detach feature or element (element516 in FIG. 5B) may be activated by a user clicking on the icon orsymbol 516 using a computer mouse or other pointing device.

In block 408, an independently managed window or page may be formed orcreated in response to the detach feature 516 being activated. Formingindependently managed windows or pages is known by those skilled in theart. An independently managed window may be formed or created for eachdetached portlet. Alternatively, one or more portlet windows or pagesmay be formed to retain all detached portlets depending upon thequantity and size of the contents of the detached portlets and thenumber of windows needed to retain or house the detached portlets. Inblock 410, the detached portlet may be transferred to the independentlymanaged window or page. In block 412, a placeholder may be formed in theportal page to represent and hold the place for the detached portlet.The placeholder may be substantially smaller than the original portletbecause of less content to occupy much less space or real estate in theportal page and to unclutter the portal page. The placeholder may alsoinclude a reattach feature or element that may be operated or activatedto reattach or transfer the contents of the portlet back into the portalpage. The reattach feature or element may include an icon or symbolrepresentative of the function of transferring the contents of theportlet back into the portal page. Thus, the contents of the popped-outor detached portlet may be replaced with a placeholder including areattach function or icon within the portal page. In block 414, acommunication tunnel or tunneling communication may be established orformed between the portal page or placeholder and the detached portlet.Accordingly, communication with the detached portlet through the portalpage may continue.

Referring also to FIGS. 5B and 5C, FIGS. 5B and 5C illustrates portlet A506 being detached or popped-out of the portal page 502. Portlet A 506and its contents may be transferred to an independently managed windowor page 526 or the like and a placeholder 528 may replace portlet A 506in the portal page 502. The placeholder 528 may include a reattachelement or feature 530. The detached portlet A 506 in the window 526 mayalso include a reattach element or feature 532. Tunneling communication534 may be created or established between the detached portlet A 506 andthe placeholder 530 or portal page 502.

Referring back to FIG. 4, in block 416, a determination may be made if adetach feature has been activated on any other portlets. If so, themethod 400 may return to block 408 and the method 400 may continue aspreviously described with respect to blocks 408-416. If the detachfeature or element has not been activated for any other selectedportlets, the method 400 may end at termination 418.

The detached or undocked portlet 506 may be reattached similar to thatdescribed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/708,971 oranalogous to that described in FIG. 3 with respect to reattaching adetached portal page to the portal environment or website. The reattachfeature or icon 530 (FIG. 5C) in the placeholder 528 may be activated byclicking with a computer mouse or pointing device or by other means toreattach detached portlet A 506 to the portal page 502. Alternatively,the reattach icon 532 in the detached portlet A 506 may be activated byclicking with a computer pointing device or the like to cause thedetached portlet A 506 to be reattached to the portal page 502.

FIG. 6 is an example of a system 600 to present a portal environment toone or more users or clients 602 and to provide the ability for the user602 to detach and reattach selected portal pages to an associated portalenvironment or to detach and reattach selected portlets to an associatedportal page in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.The user or client 602 may be a desktop or mobile computing system,cellular telephone, personal digital assistance or the like. The system600 may also be accessed by a remote portlet request 603 from anotherserver or system. Elements of the methods 200, 300 and 400 of FIGS. 1, 3and 4 may be embodied in the system 600. The system 600 may include aportal server 604. The portal server 604 may provide common services,such as application connectivity, integration, administration, andpresentation capabilities that may be needed across all portalenvironments. The portal server 604 may include an authenticationelement 606 to establish a user's identity. The portal server 604 mayuse form-based authentication. In form-based authentication, a user maybe prompted through an HTML form or the like to enter a user ID andpassword for authentication when trying to access a particular portal,portal environment or website. After receiving the user's identificationand password information, the portal server 604 may validate theauthentication information via an authorization element 608. The portalserver 604 may validate the authentication information againstinformation contained in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)directory 610. The authorization element 608 or process may alsodetermine which pages or portlets a user has permission to access. Theauthorization element 608 may access the LDAP directory 610, portaldatabase 612, and user profile database 614 in determining properauthentication, which portals are accessible by the user and otherprivileges or settings. The authorization element 608 may also interfacewith an extensible markup language (XML) access element 616.

The portal server 604 may also include a page aggregation element 618.Components of the page aggregation element 618 may be embodied inhardware or software. The page aggregation element 618 may include athemes and skins module 620. Users may be able to customize orpersonalize pages including for example, a choice of color themes, skinsand page layouts. Themes may be used to define fonts, colors, spacingand other visual elements. Themes may consist of cascading style sheets,Java Script Page (JSP) files, images or the like. Skins may bedecorations and controls placed around portlets, such as title bars,borders, shadows, or similar treatments. The page aggregation element618 may also include a JSP tab library 622, transcoding module 624 andtranslation module 626 to further facilitate portal customization andpresentation of the portal and portlets to the user 602.

The portal server 604 may also include a portlet container and serviceselement 628. Components of the portlet container and services element628 may be embodied in hardware or software. The portlet container andservice element 628 may include a portlet Application ProgrammingInterface (API) 630. Portlets rely on portal infrastructure to accessuser profile information, participate in window and action events,communicate with other portlets, access remote content, lookupcredentials, store persistent data and perform other functions. Theportlet API 630 provides standard interfaces for these functions orservices.

The portlet container and services module 628 may also include a portletdetach/reattach feature 632 and portlets 634 or information to formportlets. The portlet detach/reattach feature 632 may include or embodythe method 400 of FIG. 4 or the portlet detach and reattach featuresdescribed in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 10/708,971 which isincorporated herein by reference. The portlets 634 may include portletshaving detach and reattach features and portlets without such features.The portlet container and services module 628 may also include otherservices or functions 636. Examples of other services or functions 636may include, but is not limited to, content access, web page clipping,searching, document administration, portlet proxy, single sign on andthe like.

The server 604 may also include a portal page detach and reattachfeature 637. The portal page detach and reattach feature may include orembody methods 200 and 300 of FIGS. 2 and 3 respectively. The graphicaluser interfaces to form portal pages 502 and 504 and the portalenvironment 500 (FIGS. 5A-5D) may also be embodied in portal page detachand reattach feature 637.

Each user 602 or client may include a processor 638 and input/outputdevices 640. A browser or web browser 642 may operate on the processor638 to facilitate accessing the portal server 604. The input/outputdevices 640 may include separate input devices, output devices orcombination input/output devices. The input/output devices 640 mayinclude a keyboard, pointing device, voice recognition system or thelike. The input/output devices 640 may also include optical, magnetic,infrared or radio frequency devices, disk drives or the like. The inputdevices 640 may receive read or download software, computer-executableor readable instructions or the like, such as software that may embodyelements of the methods 200, 300 and 400 of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4.

Each user 602 may access the portal server 604 via a communicationnetwork or medium 644. The communication network or medium 644 may beany communication system including by way of example, dedicatedcommunication lines, telephone networks, and wireless data transmissionsystems, two-way cable systems, and customized computer networks,interactive kiosk networks, the Internet and the like.

Elements of the present invention, such as methods 200 and 300 and 400of FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 respectively, and system 600 of FIG. 6, may beembodied in hardware and/or software as a computer program code that mayinclude firmware, resident software, microcode or the like.Additionally, elements of the invention may take the form of a computerprogram product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage mediumhaving computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in amedium for use by or in connection with a system, such as system 600 ofFIG. 6. Examples of such a medium may be illustrated in FIG. 6 as I/Odevices 640 or medium 644 or 646. A computer-usable or readable mediummay be any medium that may contain, store, communicate or transport theprogram for use by or in connection with a system. The medium, forexample, may be an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic,infrared or semiconductor system or the like. The medium may also besimply a stream of information being retrieved when the computer programproduct is “downloaded” through a network, such as the Internet or thelike. The computer-usable or readable medium could also be paper oranother suitable medium upon which the program may be printed.

Although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, those of ordinary skill in the art appreciate that anyarrangement which is calculated to achieve the same purpose may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown and that the inventionhas other applications in other environments. This application isintended to cover any adaptations or variations of the presentinvention. The following claims are in no way intended to limit thescope of the invention to the specific embodiments described herein.

1. A portal environment, comprising: at least one detachable portalpage; a detach feature associated with the at least one detachableportal page; and a placeholder formable in the portal environment foreach detached portal page when detached, wherein the placeholder isformed in response to the portal page being detached and wherein theplaceholder is substantially smaller than the portal page to permit aplurality of portal pages and at least one portlet contained within eachportal page to be presented via their respective placeholders to a userat the same time.
 2. The portal environment of claim 1, wherein thedetach feature comprises an icon to transfer the at least one detachableportal page to an independently managed window in response to the iconbeing activated.
 3. The portal environment of claim 1, furthercomprising a window to receive a detached portal page in response toactivating the detach feature.
 4. The portal environment of claim 1,wherein the placeholder comprises a reattach feature to reattach thedetached portal page to the portal environment in response to activatingthe reattach feature.
 5. The portal environment of claim 1, furthercomprising a communication tunnel formable between the placeholder andthe detached portal page.
 6. The portal environment of claim 3, whereinthe detached portal page comprises a reattach feature to reattach thedetached portal page in response to activating the reattach feature. 7.The portal environment of claim 3, further comprising: a reattachfeature associated with the placeholder to reattach the detached portalpage to the portal environment in response to activating the reattachfeature; and another reattach feature formed in the detached portal pageto reattach the detached portal page in response to the other reattachfeature being activated.
 8. The portal environment of claim 1, furthercomprising tunneling communication between the portal environment andany detached portal page.
 9. The portal environment of claim 1, whereinthe detachable portal page comprises: at least one detachable portlet;and a detach feature associated with the at least one detachableportlet.
 10. The portal environment of claim 9, further comprising aportlet window to receive a detached portlet in response to activatingthe detach feature.
 11. The portal environment of claim 10, furthercomprising: a portlet placeholder formed in the detachable portal pageto represent the detached portlet; a portlet reattach feature associatedwith the portlet placeholder to reattach the detached portlet to theportal page in response the portlet reattach feature being activated;and another portlet reattach feature associated with the detachedportlet to reattach the detached portlet in response to the otherportlet reattach feature being activated.
 12. A system to detach andreattach a portal page to a portal environment, comprising: a portalserver; and at least one portal page accessible via the portal server,wherein the at least one portal page includes a detach feature to detachthe at least one portal page from an associated portal environment; anda placeholder associated with each detached portal page in theassociated portal environment, wherein the placeholder is formed inresponse to the portal page being detached and wherein the placeholderis substantially smaller than the portal page to permit a plurality ofportal pages and at least one portlet contained within each portal pageto be presented via their respective placeholders to a user at the sametime.
 13. The system of claim 12, further comprising a reattach featureassociated with each detached portal page to reattach the detachedportal page to the associated portal environment.
 14. The system ofclaim 12, further comprising means to provide a window to receive eachdetached portal page.
 15. The system of claim 12, further comprisingmeans to provide tunneling communication between each detached portalpage and the associated portal environment.
 16. The system of claim 12,further comprising a reattach feature associated with at least one ofeach detached portal page and the associated placeholder.
 17. The systemof claim 12, further comprising a portal database to contain the atleast one portal page.
 18. The system of claim 12, further comprising apage aggregation element to organize and present the at least one portalpage to a user accessing the associated portal environment.
 19. Acomputer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructionsfor performing a method, comprising: detaching a selected portal pagefrom a portal environment in response to activation of a detach feature;reattaching a detached portal page in response to activation of areattach feature; and forming a placeholder in the portal environmentfor each detached portal page when detached, wherein the placeholder isformed in response to the portal page being detached and wherein theplaceholder is substantially smaller than the portal page to permit aplurality of portal pages and at least one portlet contained within eachportal page to be presented via their respective placeholders to a userat the same time.
 20. The computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 19,further comprising transferring the selected, detached portal page to awindow in response to activating the detach feature.
 21. Thecomputer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructionsfor performing the method of claim 19, further comprising forming anindependently managed window for each detached portal page.
 22. Thecomputer-readable storage medium having computer executable instructionsfor performing the method of claim 19, further comprising forming thereattach feature on at least one of each placeholder and each detachedportal page.
 23. The computer-readable storage medium having computerexecutable instructions for performing the method of claim 22, furthercomprising transferring a detached portal page from the window to theportal environment in response to activating the reattach feature. 24.The computer-readable storage medium having computer executableinstructions for performing the method of claim 19, further comprisingforming tunneling communication between the portal environment and thedetached portal page.